The Duties/Responsibilities of a Presidential Candidate

I mean in regard to the White House and the government and all that...the things that the President does and is responsible for are not shared by any
candidate...not that I know of. At least not in my memory...but I'm starting to wonder...did other candidates feel compelled to make 'official'
statements about state and national matters before this year?

I have been thinking about Mitt Romney going to Louisiana after the RNC and Hurricane Isaac...I'm not faulting him for that...but WHY?

And why did he make the international rounds earlier in the year?

And why did he feel it was his duty to comment on the President's handling of the incident in Libya?

I am not wanting to debate the merits of these actions and PLEASE don't turn this into an Obama-bash. There are many threads for that already.

I'm just wondering if anyone else is thinking this is new and odd and unprecedented?
It seems presumptuous, but I admit I may just not be remembering the past as clearly as it seems to me that I am.

Well, I some research in between writing a rebuttal for my first debate and other things...so far I haven't found McCain or Obama doing anything but
campaigning in 2008. I only went back 4-5 pages, though.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is in Afghanistan on a multistop overseas trip for meetings with international leaders but with an
eye on the U.S. presidential race back home.

Obama's trip, which includes visits to Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, is intended to bolster his foreign policy
credentials before U.S. voters.

"This is the campaign trail via satellite -- pictures for the rhetoric back home," CNN's Candy Crowley said, adding that the trip was intended to
demonstrate that Obama was up to the job of taking a lead role on the international stage.....

Barack Obama’s July 24 speech to a crowd of about 200,000 in Berlin provided a startling campaign visual to punctuate a week of remarkable
media attention. A story about the event on CNN.com, complete with video, quoted the network’s European political editor saying Obama “is one of
those politicians who reaches parts other politicians don’t reach.”

But not all of the coverage last week was flattering. By the time Obama concluded a week-long overseas tour intended to burnish his geopolitical
credentials, some press post-mortems questioned whether adulation abroad would translate into votes at home and whether the candidate had the
specifics to back up his popularity. And in a reprise of a primary-season burst of introspection, the press devoted significant attention to whether
it was tilting toward the Democrat.

Whatever the tone of the coverage, Obama’s visit to the Middle East and Europe was an extraordinary media event. Coverage of the trip consumed 51%
of the campaign newshole for the week of July 21-27, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s Campaign Coverage Index. That was
enough to make it the second-biggest campaign story line since PEJ began tracking them in mid-March. (Only coverage of the April 22 Pennsylvania
primary, during the week of April 21-27, generated more attention.) ........ Amid Charges of Bias, the Media Swarm on Obama Overseas

PARIS — Senator John McCain’s trip abroad this week — which took him from the Middle East to No. 10 Downing Street to the Élysée Palace
here — was more than just a Congressional fact-finding trip, or even a candidate’s attempt to appear statesmanlike.

It was also an audition on the world stage for Mr. McCain in his new role as the Republican presidential nominee. And it offered him the chance to
test his hope that he could repair America’s tattered reputation by shifting course on some of the policies that have alienated its allies, in areas
like global warming and torture. But he is making his foray even as he embraces what much of the world sees as the most hated remnant of the Bush
presidency: the war in Iraq.

At several stops along the trip, Mr. McCain struck a markedly different tone from that of President Bush. Mr. Bush is so unpopular, even with
America’s allies, that people in Britain and France told pollsters last spring that they had even less confidence in him to do the right thing in
world affairs than they had in President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

I remember now, too, being worried that McCain was very enthused about keeping the wars going and that worried me...and thinking Obama might be more
of a peacemaker.

And reading that last excerpt, it seems as if it was necessary since Bush wasn't very popular and foreign relations was so crucial then.

And it is even more so now, I think. And truthfully, I didn't see anything wrong with Romney doing his international tour, either...I do think that
foreign relations is something that might be best demonstrated, especially when new to it, as any Presidential candidate might very well be, but not
all of them.

And definitely a learn-as-you go type of thing...Bill Clinton seemed to have learned a lot because now he is regarded by many to be very good at that
kind of thing and from what I understand, if not for him, we might not have been able to get those two women back from Iran after being arrested in
that border thing.

So, I was okay with it on the foreign relations part...I should have put 'international' or something in my search box, I guess. Thanks for doing
that research and posting the links.

And I guess I really didn't have any beef with the post-Isaac visit to LA by Romney...especially, again, because of Bush's contrasting behavior
during his term.

But then, all this hubbub about the Libya thing started me thinking just how much is okay and is Romney overstepping his boundaries.

And this isn't an effort to say Obama was better or Romney was right but simply that it might not give the best impression to other countries...I
think that no matter what personal opinions and ideas are, or how they differ...things of such a sensitive nature are hard enough to deal with without
having that internal schism being exposed like that. It makes us even more of a target, perhaps?

And regardless of who is elected in November, the job doesn't officially start until inauguration in January...whether it be a new POTUS or a
continuing one...there are maybe some duties of the President that should be left to the President to do, as he sees fit. When he's replaced in the
Oval Office, then someone else has those duties.

Does that make sense? I hope I don't seem as if I'm bashing Romney because I'm not, really...I think his campaign manager people do a lot of this
planning and stuff and maybe he's sort of thrust into positions he might not be rushing into, himself, but more like pushed into.

That is what it kind of seemed like, when I read about the funding rally in FL being postponed for a press conference.

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